Well, I think you're mistaken. The Japanese culture is very, very polite and wouldn't usually go around putting others down. Kishimoto is proud that his manga has even been turned into an anime.
Yes, this is true, the percentage of even popular manga that is made into an anime is pretty small- although significantly more shonen manga are made into an anime (especially long running anime series) than shoujo. Conversely more shoujo series are made into live action shows (which in contrast to anime adaptions tend to have a better record on characterization accuracy than anime adaptions...)
I suppose you're right, but apparently this blew up in his face in that it gave birth to rabid NH fans, which Kishi didn't even intend to, and annoyed him a bit. If Kishi had guided them to make more NS moments and gave them some sort of guideline on NS's relationship, maybe it would have been better. And another thing, their writing is terrible (most of the time). If Kishi got himself more involved, the anime's storywriting could be better.
This is true- look at Shippuden movie 3 in comparison to Shippuden movies 1,2, and 4... He did do script consulting on movie 3 (apparently on 5 for the canon characters, and cowrote the movie tie in novel- which would have been based on the first movie script that would have had the highest level of his influence) And guess what, I found out one Naruto and Sakura scene they dropped and gave to another character- In the novel/first script it's Sakura who gives Naruto back his forehead protector, in the movie it's altered to Tsunade. Sakura gives it to him in the hug scene we all know about from the person who did the novel teaser drawings.
Pierrot can weasel out about Kishimoto not saying anything directly because even though Kishimoto made clear in a Japanese cultural context that he knew Pierrot was the cause of the extreme NH and extreme Sakura bashing (by talking about the nasty fan letters right in front of the Pierrot people at Jump Festa 2009 and stating outright that he wondered why a minor character like Hinata was getting such fan worship when Sakura is the main female character and the heroine, and that from now on he would focus on making Sakura even moreso. That was very blunt message delivered with a frosty politeness in a public Japanese cultural context. He was telling Pierrot to stop overplaying Hinata and stop negatively distorting Sakura.
Didn't work with the team that is uber Hinata fanboys that hates Sakura being the main female character, but did work to encourage the team that writes closer to canon - so we have a kind of schizoid portrayal of Sakura now.
The more canon following team is obviously the one that have done all the mildly NS and Team 7 (old and new) focused openings and closings (including both the currently OP and ED- despite the silliness in the OP, it's very strongly focused on new Team 7- symbolically showing the intense bond between Sai, Naruto and Sakura) and did the filler episode with Naruto and Sakura searching for the herbs on the island. Yeah Naruto's a bit too dumb- but not to the offensive level the extreme NH fanboy team writes him (for example- the recent clone rebellion/mushroom episode), and the character interactions between Naruto and Sakura are quite close to current canon, there's even a vague hint on how they think Sakura is adjusting to Naruto knowing her romantic feelings for him, but uncertain on how much he's acknowledged those feelings- she knows from the nonverbal interaction they had when he rescued her from Sasuke, that he has come to accept to some degree that she does have some kind of affection for him, but she doesn't know how much, nor is she completely certain on how deep his feelings still goes for her, she knows he has love for her, just not how deep those feelings still are.
Yes, they need to speak to each other. Naruto needs to assure her he still loves her deeply, and Sakura needs to talk to Naruto about how deeply she loves him, but let him know she's not deluding herself she's thrown out all her feelings for Sasuke, but let him know that it's makes her feel weak and ashamed that she still carries those feelings for someone that never loved her, and has willing become totally immersed in darkness. She doesn't want those feelings, she wants to devote her heart totally to Naruto. I don't know if Naruto will fully understand this, that she really wants to let go of any bonds to Sasuke, but understands, even if it profoundly worries her, about his bond to Sasuke, and holds out hope that he can resolve things without of them either dying.
As to Kim's comment- Oh yeah, several manga creators have complained about the anime adaptions distortions- Naoko Takeuchi was quite vocal about the Sailor Moon anime distortions- and made sure she was closely involved with later adaptions of her work- including the live action short series (which I highly recommend by the way. The fight scenes are silly and the actors fighting abilities are kind of ehh, but the character develop is great, and deeper and more psychological than even the manga), CLAMP hated with a passion the X-1999 movie, and weren't pleased with the Rayearth movie either (the TV anime adaption of Rayearth wasn't a problem, only the movie), Nobuhiro Watsuki was quite unhappy with the second Kenshin movie because it was a direct violation of the happy ending he adamantly promised the fans and delivered in manga canon. (He was fine with the TV adaption, even said he liked the Christian rebels filler arc. And I'll say I thought that was well done too- while it was slightly ahistorical by the 1870's, during the Edo period 1603-1868, Christianity was banned in Japan- especially Catholicism. If you know the history of Spain and Portugal in 16th and 17th century Asia, you know why the Tokugawa Shogunate reacted in such an extreme fashion against Catholicism and against Spain and Portugal- they were outright banned from Japanese ports. They allowed Protestantism amongst the Dutch and English merchants that they allowed into the port of Nagasaki, but strongly frowned upon any attempts to convert the Japanese populace to Christianity. The English and Dutch merchants didn't have any issues with that and kept things on the low key level the Tokugawa shogunate wanted. Japanese Christians were really executed by crucifixion during the Edo period if they were open about their faith and tried to convert others. Not so much so in the later Edo period- prison terms were more common by then, but definitely during the early Edo period.) Yuu Watase was quite unhappy about the adaption of Ayashi no Ceres that Studio Pierrot did- they crammed the story into 23 episodes, and spoiled a late plot point right in the opening song...
Edited by ciardha, 19 November 2011 - 06:59 PM.
Dream you dream alone is only a dream, but dream we dream together is reality- Yoko Ono 1971
When you go to war, both sides lose totally- Yoko Ono
Remember, our hearts are one. Even when we are at war with each other, our hearts are always beating in unison- Yoko Ono 2009